Miles Wood's Long Journey | PODCAST

When Miles Wood sat down for his interview with Amanda Stein for the Speak of the Devils Podcast,he wasn't quite ready to return yet. He was just a few weeks into the skating portion of his rehab and eagerly waiting to get full clearance from the doctors to rejoin his teammates.
On Sunday, Mar. 27 Wood made his much-anticipated debut this season, logging 11:46 time on ice, one shot, and two penalty minutes.
Miles had made it to the finish line.
New Jersey Devils Official Podcast
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Miles Wood | Speak of the Devils
It may have been easier if he was a golfer.
There is no team to think about, it's just you, your club, and the ball.
But this wasn't that.
That's what Miles Wood was thinking about when it became time to seriously consider hip surgery, a surgery that would effectively wipe out the majority of his season. It was the hardest part in coming to terms with his decision to go the surgical route.
"The hardest thing for me is if I played golf, it wouldn't be a problem because it's all about me, but when you bring a team environment into that choice, you're not only hurting yourself, but you're hurting the team. That was the toughest pill to swallow," Wood shared in an exclusive interview with NJD.TV.

Wood and the Devils medical and training staff went through every possible option before taking the surgical route. Wood described it as a process of X-rays of the hips, MRI's and consultations. He and the club exhausted all options before finalizing the decision and on Nov. 4 the decision was made. On Nov. 8, Wood was in surgery.
Even knowing it would serve his best interests long-term didn't make the decision any easier.
Miles Wood is a glue guy, he is a heartbeat of a team, of a game. He is your all-encompassing team-first guy, making the decision to remove himself from the majority of a season all that more difficult.
"(If it was) a golf thing, it wouldn't be a big problem because you know, all the pressures on you or whatever. But when you play in such a team atmosphere, day in and day out, and the fact that you're hurting 23 guys, I think that was the hardest part that I finally had to swallow."
Wood leaned on former teammates like Cory Schneider and John Moore, as well as Tyler Seguin who have all had a similar, if not identical procedure done. The 26-year-old is an introspective person and like acquiring information. Speaking to them put him at ease with his decision, recalling the Lightning's Nikita Kucherov's surgery and he came back and had a crazy playoff.
"It's been a long process for sure," he said taking a deep sigh.
Other topics covered with Wood on Speak of the Devils Podcast include:
- How he tried to interact with his teammates to stay involved - What types of things he did to keep himself occupied with the added time he had - Watching the game from afar - Getting to know his new teammates - And offering his impressions on the emergence of Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt